Eldon Hole lies on a hillside on a remote farm near the Derbyshire village of Peak Forest. It was always believed to be a genuine bottomless pit and was included as such in Thomas Hobbe's 1636 book The Wonders of the Peaks, a list of marvellous and magical places in the Peak District. It was said that this was the home of the Devil, of goblins, and that highwaymen would shove their victims in to their doom. Folklore tells us that a goose was chased into Eldon Hole that reappeared days later - flying out of Peak Cavern in Castleton!
A man was lowered into the hole by rope around 1620 but was pulled up screaming snd ranting, apparently driven insane. It was only surveyed in 1780 by a group of antiquarians who discovered layer upon layer of bones including a few human remains, finally declaring a 245 feet depth but with a further cavern and hole yet to be explored. A project began some years ago to dig this out and remove the thousands of rocks thrown in by curious visitors, with an impressive array of stalactites noted but work was halted in 2017 when four skeletons were discovered!
The dig was dismantled and nothing further has happened since then, so Eldon Hole has returned to its usual lonely and slightly sinister atmosphere. Be careful, as more recently a woman was killed when she fell in accidentally while trying to grab her errant dog. Little wonder then that the Hole still retains its grim reputation.
Comments